When Wayne was a Whippersnapper: Joseph Todd

CLINTON TWP. -- A second physician of interest in Clinton Township was Dr. Joseph Todd, who was born in adjacent Franklin Township on Feb. 4, 1838.

After spending his early years working on his family's farm, Todd attended public schools in Jeromesville, Wooster and Haysville. He began the study of medicine at the offices of Battles and Bertolett in Shreve, where he remained until July 10, 1863, when, following the Battle of Gettysburg, he went to that town to try to help the massive number of wounded soldiers.

He remained in Gettysburg and Harrisburg, Pa., for the remainder of the summer, then went to Bellvue Hospital in New York where he remained during the winter of 1863-64. He then spent a year privately studying pulmonary disease under the tutelage of New York doctor Austin Flint, while simultaneously taking surgical lessons from Prof. Smith of Bellvue.

After returning to Wayne County in 1865, Todd opened his medical practice in the palatial Christmas Knoll house in Wooster (where the county administration building stands today) and married Ophelia Campbell of Dixon, Ill., with whom he had a son.

Wayne County historian Ben Douglass wrote in the 1870s that Todd "has an excellent professional, historical and miscellaneous literary library, and his passion for the accumulation of books is tantamount to a mania." Douglass called Todd's personal library "one of the best in the county."

But in addition to his library, Douglass noted it was Todd's personal museum that absolutely wowed visitors to his home and office.

"On entering either his office or his dwelling place," wrote Douglass, "you are at once impressed with his museum of curiosities and cabinet specimens. Archaeologist(s), antiquarian(s) and naturalist(s) are all suggested."

Douglass wrote that Todd's collections included "animals, fossiliferous remains, petrifications, botanical, mineralogical, zoological and geological specimens.; stalactites from the Mammoth Cave, gold quartz from Colorado, Peru and Mexico, splintered rock from El Capitan, fishes and alligators from the Gulf, boas, anacondas, elk, bison, lichens and mosses from Alaska; in short, everything almost from a buffalo to the ancient lyre of the tortoise-shell."

Douglass observed that when Todd began his studies, "his aim was to be an educated, practical man. Opportunity has been gracious to him, of which he availed himself, and by unremittent effort he has made great achievements. He has made a specialty of the domain of surgery and ranks with the best operators of Ohio."

Source: "History of Wayne County, Ohio" by Ben Douglass

Reporter Paul Locher can be reached at 330-682-2055 or plocher@the-daily-record.com.